


A peaceful mission and quiet shore leave

by ErRose



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Established Relationship, Exactly What It Says on the Tin, Fluff, M/M, No Plot/Plotless, One Shot, Romance, Shore Leave, peaceful mission and shore leave, whats a plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2020-04-29
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:07:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23904352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ErRose/pseuds/ErRose
Summary: The boys beam down to a planet for a few days of meetings and science experiments before a shore leave, and nothing goes wrong.
Relationships: James T. Kirk/Spock
Comments: 16
Kudos: 95





	A peaceful mission and quiet shore leave

Doctor McCoy grinned a knowing smile as Spock and Kirk entered the transporter room. 

“You two are finally going to take a romantic vacation together on a beautiful planet, huh?”

“It’s not a vacation, Bones. We’re on duty on Fegon for four days before Captain Trulli gets here. We have to oversee the experiments, go to all the meetings, and be available for any questions the locals have,”

“Right. And then Trulli shows up, and you get three days of shore leave in eden,” 

Jim laughed and slapped Doctor McCoy’s shoulder, “Alright, a little bit of vacation then. You about ready, Mr. Spock?” 

“Affirmative, Captain.” Together, they stepped onto the transporter pad. 

“I’m sure I’ll see you soon, when whatever terrible thing that’s going to happen happens- like it always does,”

“We’ll see you in a week, Bones, unless, that is, you decide to join us for dinner one night,” 

“I’ll be sure to call ahead if I do,” he said with a good natured roll of his eyes as Scotty sent them down to the planet. 

When they materialized on the surface, Spock heard Jim let out a tiny gasp. A beautiful desert-like landscape unfolded in front of them. A large canyon sliced a gash in the colorful sand, revealing a rainbow of rock beneath the surface, and a slightly smaller second sun hovered low in the horizon. The fegons built their buildings underground to take advantage of the natural cooling process that occurred within the rock. Because of this, the view was left unmarred by unsightly skyscrapers and other eyesores. They were surrounded by plants similar to cacti of Earth, with large brightly colored blooms. Jim gravitated toward a tall, thick plant with pink flowers growing from its sides. Spock watched as he gingerly ran his fingers over the petals, a faint smile on his lips, but in his eyes he was beaming. 

“I’m told that’s colloquially known as traveller’s friend, Captain.” Sulu came up behind them to explain, “Every part of it is edible and extremely nutrient rich. In fact, a native to this planet could survive on these alone,” 

“That’s fine, Mr. Sulu, thank you. Why don’t you show Mr. Spock and me to the botany lab and we can begin our work,” he said with a smile.

Beneath the surface in the cool labs, Sulu introduced them to the High Y’Ran, the leader of Fegon. 

“I suppose you and I will be working very closely, Captain Kirk. I am Daprena,”

“Ah, yes, High Y’Ran. Starfleet is very excited to work alongside you and your people.” He greeted her with the traditional greeting of the land- the fingertips of his left hand on his chin- and she mirrored him with a smile, pleased that he had done some research. 

The science labs bustled with Fegon and Starfleet scientists alike. Jim walked with Spock as he checked in on his teams and approved sample collections and experiments. While Spock tended to starfleet, Jim introduced himself to many of the fegons. He asked about the rocks around them, and the flowers he admired when they first landed. They answered his questions with an unfailing patience, often responding with questions about other parts of the galaxy. 

“Spock, I have to go or else I’ll be late for that meeting with the Y’Ran and her counsel,” Jim said to Spock while on his way out of the door. 

“I could accompany you, Captain.” 

“You don’t have to ignore your duties just because you know I get bored.” Spock had followed him into the empty hallway. 

“I trust that my team is more than capable of handling their respective tasks. And as your second in command, it would be prudent that I be present during these meetings,”

“Well if you’re sure,” he said with a grin and took Spock’s hand in his own and led him toward the council room. He never took much convincing when it came to spending extra time with Spock.

The Y’Ran’s advisor seemed incapable of getting his point across efficiently, leaving Jim to wonder just how long he would be trapped there. However, Spock’s hand on his knee, gently tracing circles with his fingers eased his frustration. 

When the meeting finally came to an end, Jim tagged along again as Spock did a final round to check on his teams. Pleased with their progress, he dismissed them from duty, allowing them to retreat to the _Enterprise_ for the night. 

Finally finished with their own duties, Jim hauled Spock to the surface to make their way to their planetside lodgings. The sky was the color of a fresh bruise, and a few stars began to poke out of the inky night as the second sun dipped under the horizon. 

In the house, a basket of native food had been left for them in the kitchen. Jim began picking through the ingredients, sniffing some and feeling others for texture. 

“You know, one of the botanists was telling me of a way to roast these. Maybe we could try to make that for dinner rather than sending something down from the _Enterprise_ ,” 

“I would be amenable to that.” The two of them puttered around the kitchen, working together to make dinner- effortlessly dancing around each other. 

Once dinner was finished and cleaned, they changed clothes, and sat in the bed to fill out the daily reports together. As if they had magnets under their skin, they unconsciously gravitated closer to each other until Jim was tucked into Spock’s side, and Spock wrapped an arm around him to pull him even closer. Jim put down his PADD and leaned into Spock just to feel the steady thumping of his heartbeat. 

“With all the buildings being underground, it looks like we won’t be seeing the suns much while we’re on duty,” he said around a big yawn. 

“Yes, and I find that the architecture, while logical for the fegons, would be unbearably cold for a vulcan for extended periods,”

“Very slick, Spock. You know you could just ask to cuddle.” Jim teased, already half asleep and pulled Spock further under the covers with him to keep him warm. 

The following days passed in more or less the same fashion as the first; quite busy, but no serious incidents. On their final day on duty, Kirk received a message from Captain Trulli informing him of their early arrival, and requesting to be a part of their final meeting with the High Y’Ran and her council. Jim warned them about her rambling chief, but assured them that they would be more than welcome to join the meeting. 

“Geez, Kirk, you weren’t kidding about how chatty that one was,” Trulli said after the meeting.

Jim shook their hand in greeting and laughed. “I warned you. Have you met my first officer, Spock?” Jim reached out with his fingers for a vulcan kiss, and Spock met him in the middle without even looking down. He loved showing off that Spock was his. 

“Mr. Spock, I’ve heard a great deal about you.” Spock inclined his head in greeting. 

“What do you say we show you around, let you get the feel of this place, and show you what we’ve got going on,”

“I’d appreciate that. And if you want, send me copies of your reports before you go off duty. Then there wouldn’t even be a reason to wake you up in the morning to change command. When was the last time either of you got to sleep in?”

“Well, today is Tuesday,” he started counting on his fingers, “so I’d say it's been about fifteen years,” he finished with a lopsided grin. 

“That sounds about right,” 

“Spock and I have planetside lodgings, why don’t you come over for dinner tonight,”

“You know, I think I’ll take you up on that,”

“Captain Kirk,” Uhura’s voice came over his communicator, “Doctor McCoy has just beamed to the surface and is looking for you,”

“Acknowledged,” he sighed into the communicator. “Eighteen hundred hours sound good?”

Trulli nodded. “And good luck with your doctor,”

Jim laughed and waved as he and Spock went in search of Bones. 

When they found him he was running his tricorder over Fegons and Starfleet officers alike at random. If he even smelled something he didn’t like, he took swabs to bring back to the lab on the _Enterprise_. 

“You don’t always see symptoms right away you know,” he said trying to jam a swab into Jim’s mouth, but was swatted away. 

“If I didn’t know any better, Doctor, I would say that you are bored,” Spock said with a glint of amusement in his eye. 

“Bored that no one is hurt or dying?” He asked incredulously, “No, Spock. I’m not bored. I would just like to keep it that way, that’s all,” 

“Well, since you’re already down here, you might as well stay for dinner. Trulli beamed down early, and we invited them too,”

“Trulli, huh? Yeah I suppose I could stand a few hours with them,” 

“Your enthusiasm is unparalleled as always, Bones. We’ll see you at eighteen hundred hours.” Jim said as McCoy wrangled another ensign for tricorder scans.

“Shall we return to our duties, Captain?” 

“Alright, Spock, lets go.” He put a gentle hand on the small of Spock’s back and they made their way back to the labs to finish their final day. 

On their way back to their lodgings, Jim paused for a moment to feel the warm suns on his face. It was smart to keep the buildings underground, but when they went planetside, Jim enjoyed getting a little sun. When orbiting planets, they could see the the sun, but without the atmosphere of a planet, they couldn’t _feel_ it- the way it warmed the skin down to the bones. On earth as a kid, and even on Tarsus IV, he used to sit outside until his skin turned pink and freckled. But that hadn’t happened in a very long time. Spock turned to him with a furrowed brow and a tilted head. Jim just smiled and took his hand and kept walking.

Once back in the house, they began their kitchen once again. Jim playfully swatted Spock’s ass every so often, and Spock reached his fingers out for Vulcan kisses whenever Jim had a free hand. He knew that Jim would not be able to live this life full time, but through their bond, he could feel that there was a piece of him that longed for this easy domestic life. He could feel Jim imagining it as he padded barefoot around the house, and planted kisses to the top of Spock’s head. A life free from red alerts and the constant threat of losing the other to some horror on a new planet or mission gone awry. 

McCoy brought whiskey, and Trulli brought a sweet dessert native to their home planet. The four of them spent hours laughing and drinking and sharing (somewhat exaggerated) Starfleet stories. By the time they called it a night and Bones and Trulli left, all but Spock were toeing the line between tipsy and drunk. Finally alone and unofficially on shore leave, Jim kissed Spock deeply and Spock reveled in the lingering taste of whiskey on his lips and could feel the adoration surging out from under his skin. Jim pulled him into the bedroom, suddenly overcome with love, and Spock was all too willing to follow, his own love threatening to bubble over the surface. 

“I think this is shaping up to be our best shore leave ever,” Jim whispered into the dark of the room. They lay in bed, holding each other, and looking up at the sky through the skylight.

“Shore leave does not begin until tomorrow. You and I are both officially on duty until we are relieved in the morning,” 

“I know,” he said snuggling deeper into Spock’s arms, “but this place is so beautiful that even work barely feels like work,”

“It is true that it has been more peaceful than most of our missions planetside. So far we have been on this planet for four days, and there have been no negative incidents of any nature,”

Jim pulled himself away from Spock and leapt out of the bed, fully nude, leaving Spock stunned. He followed Jim through the small house, and after a moment, he produced a small carved figurine of a ziah- a native bird-like animal with four wings- made of a native wood. He held it out towards Spock and said, “Knock on wood, Spock,”

“Why?” He simply could not process why Jim would have him do this, and was too stunned to think of a more articulate response.

“You gotta!” Jim responded with a laugh, telling Spock that it was a superstition that Jim did not believe in, but followed the tradition anyway. A peculiar habit, but one he found endearing in Jim. 

“What do you expect to happen if I do not?”

“I don’t know- something bad! Acid raid, angry rouge locals, a goddam Klingon attack. This has been so good, I don’t want you jinxing it hours before we actually start leave,”

“Captain, I-” 

“Spock, we’re both naked, and we had sex like twenty minutes ago. I think ‘Jim’ is good in this situation,” 

He stepped forward and indulgently rapped his knuckles against the figurine. There was a glint of something distinctly un-vulcan-like in his eyes. “You seemed to quite enjoy being called ‘Captain’ twenty minutes ago. If you wish for me to cease in the future, however...”

Jim laughed and cut him off with a kiss, and led them back to bed. 

Spock woke in the morning to the sun streaming through the skylight. He took a moment to marvel at Jim’s sleeping face and the way the sun washed over his features, giving him the illusion of radiating light. 

The commanding officer on duty had officially changed from Captain Kirk to Captain Trulli- because there had been no issues, there was no reason to wake them to hand off the duty. They were now officially on shore leave, and with no one around to ask for his logical reasoning for doing so (he had none), he pulled Jim closer to his chest and soaked up the warmth that exuded from his very essence and allowed himself to linger in bed, just a little while longer. After some time, he could feel the telltale signs of Jim beginning to wake- a change in breathing pattern, small muscular movements, and quiet noises made in the back of his throat. 

He gently pressed a kiss to Jim’s forehead, and with practiced ease disentangled himself from his clinging limbs. 

Jim stirred and reached out to Spock and mumbled, “Whereyagoin?” 

“I am going to make you coffee, ashal-veh. I will return momentarily,” 

“iloveyouspock,” 

“Taluhk nash-veh k’dular,”

He opened one eye and smiled up at Spock. Spock’s heart seemed to swell in his side. Before Jim, he never believed that he would experience love. It was an illogical and unnecessary emotion that did nothing but cloud the mind. When he finally recognized his feelings for what they were, he was nearly paralyzed with shame. Eventually the truth came out and Jim admitted that he felt the same. With every shy smile and gentle touch, Jim stripped him of his shame, bit by bit, and replaced it with love. He had never been so glad to be proven wrong. He was better with Jim.

He returned with a coffee for Jim and a tea for himself and sat down next to him. Jim leaned into him as they quietly sipped their drinks and soaked in the peaceful morning. No red alerts blaring or emergencies to sort out, just the simple company of t’hy’la

“One of the geologists told me about a great place to go rock climbing,” Jim said eventually, breaking the silence, “Do you want to come with me?” 

“My intention was to accompany you, however if you prefer solitude, I can-” 

Jim cut him off. “No, I would love your company, but I know rock climbing isn’t exactly your idea of a good time,”

“Jim, my _idea of a good time,_ as you put it, is spending time with you.” Jim’s heart melted. Spock liked to pretend he had no idea what romance was, but always knew exactly how to turn Jim’s heart into liquid gold. “However, is the point of shore leave not to rest? I do not see the point of physically exhausting yourself as a form of rest,”

“I can go by myself if you don’t want to come,” Jim shrugged easily.

“Perhaps we could bring a picnic lunch with us. You always get hungry after vigorous exercise,”

Jim laughed at Spock’s way of agreeing to go. He would follow Jim to the ends of the universe, no matter how illogical. 

Jim prepared for the day while Spock made lunches and packed essentials- including, but not limited to phasers, in case of wild animals, extra food and water in case of a cave collapse, blankets in case of sudden temperature drops and a medkit. 

“Isn’t all of this a little excessive, Spock?” Jim asked when he saw the bag, stuffed to the brim. 

“It is only logical. It’s very rare we go so long without a life threatening incident,”

“Better safe than sorry, I guess,” 

Thankfully, they only needed the medkit to patch up a scraped palm, and the blankets to lay out for a picnic lunch. 

Jim pulled his shirt over his head to take in as much sun as he could and laid back, his head cradled in Spock’s lap. 

“Would you like me to apply sunscreen to your chest and back? I believe you neglected those areas this morning,” 

“You’ll say anything to get your hands on me, huh?” Jim teased as he sat up and pecked Spock’s delicate lips, before fishing the bottle from the bag. 

Spock warmed the cream in his hands before rubbing it into Jim’s shoulders. He gasped a startled breath- no matter how much Spock tried to warm it, it was always too cold for Jim’s warm skin. When he finished with his back, Spock placed a tender kiss at the very top of his spine. Jim took his cue to turn around so Spock could apply the same attention to his chest. When Jim was sufficiently protected from the suns, he pulled Spock to him for a kiss, more heated than Spock’s had been, smearing the still damp sunscreen on Spock’s shirt. 

“Oh look at that,” Jim said, a glint of mischief in his eye, “Your shirt is all dirty, you shouldn’t walk around like that. I’d almost say it’s better to just take it off all together,”

With a barely concealed eye roll, Spock allowed Jim to peel the shirt off over his head and kissed him again. 

“Now, I’ll return the favor.” He held up the bottle of lotion.

“Jim, Vulcan is a desert planet, my skin is designed to not burn under a much hotter sun than these,”

But Jim was already warming the lotion in his palms. Once both fully protected from the suns, they stretched out together, bodies pressed side by side and fingers tangled. 

After some time talking and cloud gazing(and though Spock would never admit to it- some light dozing), Jim lifted himself onto an elbow to get a better look at Spock. His eyes were closed, but when Jim’s shadow blocked the light, he opened one eye. Jim ran a gentle finger up the sharp line of his brow. 

“I don’t know how I got so lucky,” he muttered to himself.

“Luck has nothing to do with our relationship.” Spock sat up in an easy, fluid movement. 

“I thought you believed in luck now,” he said, taking Spock’s hand in his own. 

“If I remember correctly, what I said was that you _almost_ make me believe in luck,”

“Of course.” His smile was more in his eyes than his lips- he knew Spock was right, he pretty much alway was. He laid back down and the dreamy afternoon passed them by. After a light nap, Jim startled awake, sure he had heard the red alert signal. Spock soothed him by running his fingers through his hair and muttering vulcan endearments. 

“We should be getting back soon anyway, Jim. You will likely begin to burn,”

“I suppose you’re right. My face already feels like its burning,”

Spock took a closer look at him to assess the damage. There were golden streaks running through his hair, and his cheeks and nose, which glowed a gentle pink, were spattered with tiny freckles like so many stars in the sky. His face glowed even more than usual. He was suddenly overcome with the urge to cover Jim in kisses, to make love to him and never leave their bed.

“Is everything okay Spock? You look a little… distracted,” 

Without wasting another second he pulled Jim in and kissed him. Startled, Jim couldn’t help but laugh. Spock pulled back and ran his thumb over Jim’s pink cheek.

“What-” Spock cut him off with another kiss. Slightly more prepared for it this time, Jim kissed him back for a moment before pulling back. 

“Why Mr. Spock, what has gotten into you?” Jim asked, batting his eyelashes and cupping Spock’s face in his hand. 

Spock took a golden strand of hair and twirled it around his finger, watching it glisten in the sun. 

“You are so beautiful, Jim,” 

Jim blushed fiercely, highlighting the speckles even more. “Well Spock, I think if you’re going to continue like this, we should definitely retreat to our room,” he whispered as Spock’s hand traced a line from his collar bone down to graze the skin just above the waist of his pants with the lightest of touches. 

Spock hummed. “I am inclined to agree.” His voice was rough with the lust that flowed in both directions through every point of contact. 

Lying in bed that night, Spock couldn’t stop staring at Jim. With a gentle finger, he trailed his finger across Jim’s face, connecting the freckles to make constellations, while Jim tried to guess them. 

“That one was Aries,” he whispered. Spock smiled a tiny smile, barely more than a twitch of the lips, but he knew that Jim would see it. He tried another constellation. 

“Try it again, I’m not sure what that one was,” 

“I think that would be considered cheating,” Spock matched Jim’s volume, as he traced the shape on Jim’s face once more.

Jim thought for a moment, before giving up.

“That was the constellation representing Seleya. An important figure on Vulcan pre-Surak,”

“Now who’s cheating? How would I know constellations seen from Vulcan?” 

“I am from Vulcan, yet know your earth constellations,”

“Okay fair enough,” he sighed, “do another one.” He closed his eyes as Spock kissed his forehead, and drew another, then another, tracing the more intricate one across his chest and shoulders, and told Jim the stories behind each one, lulling them both into sleep. Perhaps, just this once, they really would have a peaceful shore leave.


End file.
